"There's NOBODY avaible?!" - Garami

  "Yes, no one. If I am to be honest with you, I am also quite displeased over this situation." - Ronandart

  In the office of the Bckmarket Union's Barataria branch, its head honcho, Ronandart, could only sigh with displeasure at his answer to my request.

  "From the start, we are not a mercenary guild. We are honorable deliverers of goods to those who cannot walk out in the sun freely." - Ronandart

  "That's a good way to say 'to crooks and thieves'." - Garami

  "You know, appearance is important in our line of business." - Ronandart

  Not being bothered by my pointy reply, Ronandart only shrugged his shoulders while giving a teasing line. However, the fun left his face the second after, as he's also getting the burn over his inability to provide us with some muscles.

  "Do you mind my asking, Miss Garami, why your Dungeon is constantly in a pinch? I am starting to reconsider our partnership." - Ronandart

  "Sure, do that. There's plenty of other Dungeons willing to ship their goods to your business." - Garami

  "Kekekeke. The demon, she's right. We're crooks. Even D-Masters, even they won't like us." - Glock

  The dark blob of a figure, who seems to be Ronandart's right-hand man(?), chuckled over our shared problems. Glock was the Inhabitant that led me to the Bckmarket, but I can't say he's got all his screws right. Buddy, this problem's yours as well.

  "Hmm? Whatcha mean by 'D-Masters'?" - Rolf

  "Like the demon. Lord over Dungeons." - Glock

  "Ah, right. My bad there." - Rolf

  It seems the blobs are hitting it off. Which reminds me, is Glock part of the Slime species? Those shiny, yellow eyes inside the dark green robe give me a more ghostly, maybe even demonic, feeling, so maybe not.

  Ronandart might be thinking about the same thing as he was looking at the blob duo while fiddling with his beard. Ah, now he turned to look at me. Then back to the blobs. And now he snapped his fingers like he had an eureka moment.

  "Miss Garami, we might not be able to offer you any soldiers, but we do have intel you might find useful." - Ronandart

  ...Why am I getting a nasty feeling right now?

  ---

  Later, at the Darknd Pass:

  "Now this is a bst from the past." - Garami

  I looked up at the majestic (read: nightmarish) wall of stone that made up the passage between the Darknds and the Dusk Woods, the forest area that had the honor of being the first area I traveled to, the Darknds not counting in this case.

  As before, the giant walls are reaching for the sky, only blocked by a heavy cloud of dark mist. The shadows of monsters flying in that hazy mess are still there too.

  "They weren't kiddin' when they said this tip would come with some risks..." said Rolf, the only one to accompany me, with a slightly frightened voice. There is no way I can bring Bloom with me here.

  "I was thinking along the same lines when I first passed here. Though you know the saying: nothing ventured, nothing gained." - Garami

  "Shouldn't it be 'no pain, no game'?" - Rolf

  "Ah, that works way better." - Garami

  Finishing our small talk, Rolf and I prepared to climb. Back then, I wrote off the cliff as unscable, but I've come prepared today. Special-prepared climbing gloves, presence-concealing cloak, DEX-enhancing Clothing-type armor, and an anti-poison neckce accessory.

  Ronandart recommended all this stuff for our trip and even gave me a discount for the whole shebang. Some part of my head says that I might've been duped into buying all this stuff, but the other 99% tells me to settle the score with this giant wall that I've postponed for too long. The anti-poison trinket is kinda weird, I gotta agree with that. Are there flying scorpions up there in the fog?

  "Still, are you going to be fine, Rolf? You only have those weird goggles on you." - Garami

  "I couldn't use all that fancy-schmancy equipment in the first pce! I'm a Slime, for Pete's sake!" - Rolf

  Ah, that's true.

  "Besides, you can't wear goggles because of that blindfold of yours. So take care of the climbing while I look for the baddies." - Rolf

  Riiiiight. I'm stuck with the blindfold because of its cursed item-like effect that prevents me from taking it off, even when I'm able to change the rest of my wardrobe. What a pain...

  As for what these goggles are, they're something Glock packed on us. They give you X-ray vision...but only against fog. If they had worked against "other stuff", the whole female pyer base would sughter the owners of those items. And yes, I'd join. So I could snatch a pair in the confusion. Those would sell for a fortune on the bck market. Maybe even the guys who gifted these mist-only versions? ...Nah. Despite the nature of their business. Ronandart and Co are surprisingly diligent...I think.

  Having said his bit, Rolf jumped into the backpack I had brought along and started looking into the air using both the X-ray goggles and a set of binocurs. Here we have another surprisingly diligent dude...I think. Again.

  Ignoring my doubts, I started on the climb. There's no way to expect a safety rope or something here, so I compensated by throwing a [Demon Spider's Thread] and had it stick to the mountain wall. A few thugs to test if it was solidly "stickified" to the wall ter, and I was going up in the world. Literally.

  The first few meters weren't too bad. The equipment I bought had various effects reted to climbing, such as the ability to stick on walls a little, plus it could reduce the stamina consumption from climbing. Things weren't bad even after we reached the first yer of mist...at first.

  "Boss! Giant flyer 4 o'clock!" - Rolf

  "[Demon Spider's Thread]!" - Garami

  "Another one at 7 o'clock!" - Rolf

  "[Darkness Briars]!" - Garami

  "Three crawlers from above-o'clock!" - Rolf

  "[Slow Evil Eye] then [Sleep Demon's Touch]!!" - Garami

  Multiple poison-purple-colored freakish creatures started coming after us once we reached the point where I couldn't see the ground anymore due to the mist. The "flyers" are some weird creatures that look like a fusion between an eel, a pteranodon, and a cyclops, and they're coming at us while covered in purple liquid. The "crawlers" look like some freakish centaur with a rat's upper body and a crab's body for the "horse" part.

  Needless to say, I didn't wanna touch them more than I needed, nor did I have the chance to take out my weapon while scaling the rock wall, so I left my web threads and Evil Eyes did most of the trick. Trapping the monsters or causing them to fall asleep led to them dropping down and out of the mist. The fall damage must have been enough to kill them, cause I've been getting some notifications now and then. I don't have the spare energy to read 'em, so I've been ignoring them for now.

  "WHY THE MONSTER PARITES?!" I shouted out loud in an attempt to expel my frustration over the repeated monster attacks. Needless to say, I waited for this outburst until we found a decent-sized ledge to take a break on.

  "Hey, boss? Mind not attracting more of those jokers? At least until after we've finished emptying the MP and SP pots?" - Rolf

  "Nope! Especially since I'm the one who had to deal with them all!" - Garami

  "Sorry for leaving the heavy lifting to the Guild/Dungeon Master who's also a Demon Lord with overinfted stats~." - Rolf

  I hate it when this guy's right.

  "But honestly speaking, I doubt I could even scratch the skin of these monsters' noses. This pce has to be a te-game area." - Rolf

  "And one for the Poison element, if the hints are true." - Garami

  All the monsters we have encountered so far had either an incredible wall-sticking ability or an impressive mist-hiding skill or two under their belt. But what they all shared is that nasty-looking liquid that's secreted from various body parts. And with that color scheme, you can't come and tell me they're not poisonous.

  Rolf's not technically a fighter. He has some combat skills, and his nature as a Slime should give him some advantage against poisons, but his "combat level" is far too low to fight here. I think he might even struggle against the giant toads in the Darknd Pins next door.

  For some reason, there weren't any unwelcome visits to us during our break, so we took off again soon after. A few meters ter, I could hear "something" in the mist, but even Rolf couldn't find out what or where the noise source was.

  Fearing a potential boss encounter while still climbing to the cliff wall, I increased my climbing tempo, and we soon found ourselves at the top of the cliff...sort of. The area is still covered in fog, so I had to rely on Rolf to expin the area.

  In short, the area seems to have several strata connected through rope bridges. Some mine cart tracks could be found on the ground, but they're either half-rusted into oblivion or lead into caved-in holes in the higher-pced strata's walls. Our current position is the lowest one.

  "What's this pce supposed to be? A Foggy Himaya Mining Area?" - Garami

  "You know, someone with that bad of a naming sense shouldn't be keeping or naming creatures. Don't you feel bad for your demonic critters?" - Rolf

  "Ha-ha. Veeeery funny. If you have a better idea, come with it." - Garami

  "Sorry, boss, but my brain's a race car-only zone. Maybe the quest notice will tell us something." - Rolf

  "Quest notice?" - Garami

  "Yeah. One said we completed something after we finished the climb. Didn't you notice?" - Rolf

  "Ah, no, I turned them off. Couldn't have them distract me." - Garami

  Now's a good time to look through them, though. We have fewer than I expected.

  SYSTEM MESSAGE:

  Your level has increased by 2. You have reached Lv.14.

  You have obtained a total of 1.6 Aether Points.

  You have cleared the Quest: [Pioneer: Darknd Cliff].

  You have obtained the skills: [Toxic Resistance Lv.10].

  You have acquired the title: [Chimera Syer].

  Just two levels!? I was hoping those mutants would be worth more. I guess it's just proof that even if you make the fight more difficult, say fighting on the wrong side of a cliff, it won't give you any bonus points. Or maybe I should call them "chimeras" rather than "mutants"? Or rather, what's the difference?

  As for the quest, it must be one of those "automatically acquired" types I've been hearing rumors about. It's something of a "first come, first served" deal that gives you bonus skills, AP, or other stuff if you're the first guy to defeat some rare monster, discover a new area, and so on. And boy, have we hit the jackpot!

  "Ain't getting a fully leveled skill kinda nuts?" - Garami

  "Doesn't it mean climbing that cliff was just that bad?" - Rolf

  Really? I didn't think it was that bad... But then again, seeing the skill is one aimed at preventing you from getting affected by the [Poison] ailment (not the element, the ailment), it might not be worth that much for people taking the normal way of climbing the cliff. They'd have [Toxic Resistance] at a high level already, so we just lucked out.

  "Anyway, now what? Does that map say anything?" - Garami

  "Hmm...yes, it should be over there to the north," said Rolf while reading the old map we got from Ronandart. "The question is if this thing's right or not."

  "Eh, whatever. It's not like we had any other ideas for recruiting meatshields to our team." - Garami

  "You could have tried going to the Union and asking nicely." - Rolf

  "Yeah, like that would happen," I replied while remembering the ever-growing list of goods that Author-guy's promising on the BBS to the mercenaries that win him the Dungeon Battle. Rolf also shrugged his shoulders, knowing fully well that we can't compete in this "battle of the bribes".

  I took the map from Rolf to take a look at it myself before moving on, when I noticed something in my still-opened system window. A notification is glowing underneath the quest tab. Did I trigger another auto-quest?

  *Thump, thump, thump...*

  Just as I was about to investigate the blinking tab, a faint sound was heard from the deeper part of the area. Rolf took up the binocurs again to take a look. 0.001 seconds ter and his metallic-gray slime body turned pale white. Is that a feature for slimes?

  "B-b-b-boss! We gotta get outta here!" he said with a shaken voice while jumping into the backpack again.

  "What is it?" I asked while taking a few steps away from the source of the sound with my Nightmare Weapon in its dagger form.

  "D-d-d-dinosaur! A jurrasic gigantic dinosaur!" - Rolf

  "A what-?" I was going to ask before I was cut short. A giant clunk of purple crystals came flying towards us from out of the mist, forcing me to jump out of the way and escape being sent back to the Guild House.

  "Less prattling and more escaping!" - Rolf

  "I'm escaping, I'm escaping!" - Garami

  "That's a clever girl-, err, Boss!" - Rolf

  Oh, shut it!